Android 2.2 demolishes iOS4 in JavaScript benchmarks

Our benchmarks show that Android 2.2 on the Nexus One significantly …

Google's Android mobile operating system got some significant performance improvements in version 2.2, codenamed Froyo. A high-performance JIT was introduced in Android's Dalvik runtime environment and the browser got some very deep optimizations. These enhancements make Android's performance more competitive than ever.

In our recent review of Android 2.2, we conducted some tests on the Nexus One to measure the extent of the JavaScript performance improvements. SunSpider and V8 benchmarks show that JavaScript execution in Froyo's Web browser is almost three times faster than in the previous version of the platform.

We compared these findings with that of our tests of Apple's mobile Safari browser on the iPhone 4. The results show that the Android device delivers significantly faster JavaScript execution than the iPhone, scoring over three times better on V8 and almost twice as fast on SunSpider. Apple has some work to do it if wants mobile Safari to retake the crown as the fastest mobile browser.

213 Reader Comments

I can't help but wonder what would happen if they used the same browser, which is possible as Opera Mini 5 is available on both platforms. Would also be interesting to see if any gains are to be had, with the Opera alternative, compared to the standard browsers.

@JustJCI know alot of people will make the same comment you did, but such a request is very rediculous!The point of the comparison is to test the DEFAULT usage of each device. And in this case, it's obvious that the default settings and default software is better on Android for JAVA Scripts.

3rd party applications are never going to be equal on 2 seperate platforms. So that's not even a fair comparison because any difference in performance is strictly determined by the 3rd party developers and how well they developed the software. A 3rd party won't be shooting to make one better than the other, while the O/S developer on the other hand wants the #1 fastest speeds and therefore will optimize their product.

I can't help but wonder what would happen if they used the same browser, which is possible as Opera Mini 5 is available on both platforms. Would also be interesting to see if any gains are to be had, with the Opera alternative, compared to the standard browsers.

Opera Mini isn't really a browser, in that it takes the HTML, JavaScript, etc. and interprets (please don't focus on my use of that word) them on the local machine. Opera Mini basically talks to an Opera server which does all of that and then sends what is effectively an image of the final product to your local machine. The real differences would mostly be with the speeds of your carrier, and less so with your phone.

The point of this article is when comparing the default browser on the 2.2 Nexus One with the default (and only real allowed) browser on the iPhone 4, Mountain View trounces Cupertino severely - so Cupertino loses a bragging point.

Yeah, but what does benchmark performance mean in the real world? Frankly, just loading a normal page (say, news.bbc.co.uk) one second faster isn't going to make a heck of a lot of difference to most people. If it loads 5 seconds faster, then it might...

The title of this article isn't very clear -- it's not Android 2.2 compared against iOS4. It's NexusOne + 2.2 vs. iPhone 4. If you use, say, an LG Ally with Android 2.2 (assuming you can get 2.2 on an Ally), these performance numbers will look *very* different.

What matters is whether they're able smartphones and provide a good experience.

I think this being an article specifically on mobile browser performance in terms of javascript mean that covering a general compairson of the two OSs might be a bit outside of what the article is trying to cover

i would, however, be interested if you could do some real world tests on popular websites as to how much difference this makes in terms of loading & using them

The title of this article isn't very clear -- it's not Android 2.2 compared against iOS4. It's NexusOne + 2.2 vs. iPhone 4. If you use, say, an LG Ally with Android 2.2 (assuming you can get 2.2 on an Ally), these performance numbers will look *very* different.

You're certainly right that its different hardware. The hardware is broadly comparable though - it shouldn't account for more than a 30% difference.

I don't really see what incentive Apple have to speed up javascript as it runs counter to the whole native app model they now have. Google want everything in the cloud so the quicker that is the better.

I'm always interested to know how such performance improvements affect battery life... is it 'more efficient' now, or is it somehow working the CPU more, or do screen and wireless costs make these concerns insignificant?

Yeah, but what does benchmark performance mean in the real world? Frankly, just loading a normal page (say, news.bbc.co.uk) one second faster isn't going to make a heck of a lot of difference to most people. If it loads 5 seconds faster, then it might...

I'm sorry, this isn't passing the smell test for me. Mainly because the JavaScript engines are pretty highly tuned in both Safari and "Chrome" (Not sure if that is the right name to apply to the Android browser). I would expect refinements in the engine to deliver 10-20% advantages in one platform over the other. A 400% advantage seems a little over the top for similar hardware running similar browser code.

The title of this article isn't very clear -- it's not Android 2.2 compared against iOS4. It's NexusOne + 2.2 vs. iPhone 4. If you use, say, an LG Ally with Android 2.2 (assuming you can get 2.2 on an Ally), these performance numbers will look *very* different.

You're certainly right that its different hardware. The hardware is broadly comparable though - it shouldn't account for more than a 30% difference.

I don't really see what incentive Apple have to speed up javascript as it runs counter to the whole native app model they now have. Google want everything in the cloud so the quicker that is the better.

My point was not to quibble about which is faster; merely that Android has serveral different hardware options, and I assume many of these will eventually get 2.2 (perhaps I'm wrong about that? who knows). As I understand it (and again, I could be wrong), the NexusOne's processor is faster than the iPhone 4's, so while it appears that Android's JavaScript engine is now faster, the numbers above may not be representative.

Apple has some work to do it if wants mobile Safari to retake the crown as the fastest mobile browser.

And why would they want to do that, exactly? What web application does this impact? Optimization for the sake of optimization is a waste of resources. I haven't noticed that Safari is particularly slow. So I can't exactly get excited about these results.

I'm sorry, this isn't passing the smell test for me. Mainly because the JavaScript engines are pretty highly tuned in both Safari and "Chrome" (Not sure if that is the right name to apply to the Android browser). I would expect refinements in the engine to deliver 10-20% advantages in one platform over the other. A 400% advantage seems a little over the top for similar hardware running similar browser code.

I came here for the flamewar, but i appear to be unfashionably early...

How's this?

Tomorrow's headline:Steve Jobs says; 'JavaScript is a bloated, outdated technology. It is full of security holes, leads to a sub-standard user experience, and encourages users to access pornographic content. Apple will be phasing out JavaScript in favor of iScript(tm) in future versions of their operating systems...'

I don't know if I'm interpreting this right, but by Webkit build numbers, Mobile Safari in iOS 4.0 is only usually build 6531.22.7, which is the equivalent of last generation Safari 4.0.5 rather than the latest desktop Safari 5.0 which uses build 6533.16. If Android's Mobile Chrome is keeping up with desktop Chrome, but Mobile Safari isn't keeping up with desktop Safari, it isn't surprising the iOS 4 browsing performance is slower than Android regardless of the new JIT compiler in Android 2.2.

Generally the x.1 iOS updates in September with the new iPod Touches are more optimization and performance updates than feature updates, so hopefully things will be a lot more competitive with iOS 4.1.

@JustJCI know alot of people will make the same comment you did, but such a request is very rediculous!The point of the comparison is to test the DEFAULT usage of each device. And in this case, it's obvious that the default settings and default software is better on Android for JAVA Scripts....

I hate to nitpick, but "JAVA Scripts"?? JavaScript is the language here. JavaScript's only relation to Sun Java is that it can be used to script Java. It is independent otherwise.

This just echoes (to one degree or another) the JavaScript benchmarks we've seen for the desktop equivalents of these browsers — assuming there is some connection between Chrome and the Android browser beyond the WebKit layout engine.

That the OS and device names are being used for the comparison instead of the browsers seems a little disingenuous or, at least, incorrect in terms of what is actually being compared. Obviously, the hardware and underlying OS do play a part in the performance of software executing on the devices, but the performance differences likely have more to do with the JavaScript engines in the respective browsers.

Give it a few months and this comparison won't even be valid due to the rapid development cycle of these browsers and the improvements/optimizations that are continuously being made to the various engines. Just look at IE9 on the desktop as proof that things can change quickly in this space.

Now, if only Opera Mobile beta for Android had come out and Apple would allow a third-party browser at all...

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not, but Opera Mobile is available for both Android and iPhone...

Now, a comparison of Opera Mobile's operation on both platforms would be a better, more level playing-field comparison.

Better still, a comparison of the JavaScript benchmarks on several different handsets running Webkit at different CPU speeds on both platforms (e.g. HTC Hero, Droid and Nexus One vs iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4.

Now wouldn't that give plenty more food for conclusive thought and a less infantile punchline than "Apple has some work to do it if wants mobile Safari to retake the crown as the fastest mobile browser".